A method for forming silicon wafers involves growing a large cylindrical ingot from molten silicon and subsequently, slicing the ingot into wafers and polishing the wafers to form finished a finished wafer product. Silicon in this form is used, for example, by the semiconductor industry to form integrated circuits as well as in the solar industry to form solar panels. The aforementioned process is economical for the semiconductor industry because thousands of integrated circuits can be fabricated from a single wafer. The process, however, is less amenable to the fabrication of solar panels.
In the formation of solar panels, individual solar cells are typically formed on the silicon wafers. The surface area of the silicon wafers, however, is far less than that required for a typical solar cell, and thus, the individual cells must then be tiled and wired together to form a single solar panel capable of absorbing energy over a large area.